SMMES PLAY A CRUCIAL ROLE IN TOURISM

AN INCREASING number of tourists seek unique experiences when exploring a destination, including interacting with local people. In South Africa, such unique tourist experiences can be found right across the country with township tours and home-stays among the most popular. These experiences have opened up business opportunities for small, medium and micro enterprises.

It is not that the beach adventure, the hiking trail and the Big 5 bucket list items are no longer in demand. They still are and are now complemented by unusual experiences which can easily be provided by the growing tourism SMME businesses to fulfil the newage tourist’s niche desires.

SMMES play an important role in tourism, offering a diverse – and often unique – range of products and services. They are able to adapt their offerings according to market trends to ensure their businesses grow. With domestic trips declining countrywide, the time could not be more opportune to offer costeffective and diversified experiences to domestic tourists and SMMES are able to diversify their service, offering and adapting their strategies to attract more local clientele.

The smaller players boost the tourism industry by offering affordable services, making going on holiday easy for many a visitor.

As they are owner-run and -managed, they provide more of a personalised experience and go the extra mile for their guests.

Ambitious SMMES, with plenty of drive and an eye on innovation, are the engines of growth in Kwazulunatal and the country and are to key to creating much-needed jobs.

And the benefit of bringing more SMMES into the marketplace is showing. Last year, according to latest data from the Tourism Satellite Account for South Africa, the tourism sector created 31 752 jobs.

This is the highest number of jobs generated by tourism within a year in the past eight years. This also represents the second year of employment growth after the sector saw a net loss of 12 262 jobs in 2015.

This translates into one in every 22 employed people in South Africa working in the tourism sector, totalling 722 013 individuals, representing 4.5 percent of the

16.2 million people in the workforce.

SMMES have the ability to unlock economic opportunities, particularly for the previously disadvantaged – women and the youth. Tourism KZN has long realised the importance of SMMES and runs an enterprise development programme.

Phindile Makwakwa is the acting chief executive for Tourism KZN.